


Conclusions

by loosingletters



Series: But what I do [3]
Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, Batman: The Animated Series, The Batman (Cartoon)
Genre: Coming Out, Family, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Not much angst only a little bit, Trans Bruce Wayne, Young Bruce Wayne
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-23
Updated: 2019-06-23
Packaged: 2020-05-18 14:41:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,173
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19336603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/loosingletters/pseuds/loosingletters
Summary: Thomas Wayne has a talk with his daughter in which he realizes he might not have a daughter at all.





	Conclusions

Thomas Wayne was a busy man and he hated himself for it. He never managed to make enough time for his family, he could hardly recall the last time he could just spend an hour with his darling daughter without having to schedule it two weeks prior.

Because that was precisely what they had done. Elisabeth had told him that she wanted two hours to talk with her father, preferably on a Sunday where he didn’t have to work and they didn’t have a gala to attend in the evening. She had asked him for his time like it wasn’t something she was entitled to have. His horror at that realization must have shown, he had seen its reflection in Martha’s smirk and Alfred’s passive-aggressive china polishing.

Thomas had vowed then to make more time for his family, and so he had dedicated his entire Sunday to his dear daughter, though she had insisted on sticking to a set time.

Three p.m. in the afternoon, one and a half hours after lunch, Thomas Wayne sat in his study with his daughter standing in front of him. She looked very determined for a five-year-old, but the way she kept wiping her sweaty palms off on her pants told Thomas that this wasn’t just a serious talk, but an important one as well. His detective skills might not be as excellent as his wife or Alfred’s, but Thomas had a good head on his shoulders and he knew his child. She had denied a chair, another clue that something wasn’t right.

“Father,” Elisabeth said, short and sharp. _Father_ , that was a new habit she had picked up. She called Martha ‘ _mother’_ now too, instead of ‘ _mom’_. Alfred had said that children liked to experiment like that, but that hadn’t cleared anything up for Thomas.

“Yes, Elisabeth?”

“Father, after spending many hours researching with mother-“Martha knew what was going on? That explained why she had seemed to calm about it –“I have come to the conclusion that I am a boy.”

Elisabeth looked up at him, her serious expression mirroring her mother’s. Thomas took a deep breath in and out again. Elisabeth’s blue eyes were still focused on him, assessing his reaction.

“And how did you come to that conclusion?” Thomas asked. He tried to keep his tone even, to stop his voice from wavering, to ensure that he would not start screaming ‘please no, not my child’.’

Nevertheless, he still saw the images of the adults, teenagers, kids sleeping in Leslie’s clinic because they had no home to return to where short hair and dressed were tolerated because the world was out to get them and it wasn’t kind to any outsiders. GID, Thomas thought, was a cruel thing to be diagnosed with. But maybe his daughter was just trying to test new things out. Maybe-

“Mother and I were looking through old photo albums, and I figured out that I’d rather look like you and my great-grandfathers than Mother and my great-grandmothers.”

Elisabeth paused. “They’re pretty. But I don’t want to be that pretty. So I told Mother and we went to the university library to research it. Now I am telling you that I’m a boy.”

Thomas did recall Martha and Elisabeth going to the library, but that had been almost a month ago already. If the two of them had been keeping it a secret for this long, it must be serious. Martha must agree with Elisabeth. This wasn’t just another ‘ _Mother and Father’_ kind of situation with Elisabeth testing out the world around her, was it? The consequences would be horrible, unthinkable really, now that Thomas started considering. They’d have to take her out of school, Thomas realized. At least for a while until people wouldn’t throw a fit anymore.

“Father?”

Elisabeth was still staring up at him. With her right hand, she was scratching her left, leaving red marks.

“Darling,” Thomas said carefully. “The dress I bought for you last week can go back to the store now, can it?”

Elisabeth smiled hesitantly. “It’s pretty, but maybe we can give it to somebody who will like it more. My skirts and other dresses too. They’re very impractical in general. What if ninja broke into the house and I had to fight them? I’d trip all over them and then Alfred would have to save the day again.”

Thomas rose from his comfortable office chair and stretched. His muscles were still tense from the long shifts he had done all week. Then he held out his hand and Elisabeth eagerly took it.

“What about your mother and me?”

Elisabeth frowned, lost in thought. “Well, you’re already making sure the rest of the staff is safe and Mom is obviously hunting down the leader.”

Thomas led them away from his office and started walking into the direction of the gardens. He nodded along with Elisabeth’s ramblings, his eyes focused on the worry slowly easing out of his child.

“… and then I’ll be king like Robert the Bruce,” Elisabeth finished the long presentation on how to be king, heavily influenced by the history lessons Alfred tended to give when he was cooking.

“So you’re going to be our little Robert then?” Thomas asked and picked his child up. “Robbie? Robin? It means ‘ _bright fame’_.”

Martha and Alfred were already waiting for them. It was a beautiful summer day, and Martha had been meaning to work on her roses. Instead, she and Alfred were having a picnic, not really moving away from the wool blanket Thomas distinctly buying on a flea market. It had little gods printed on it. It was the ugliest thing Thomas has ever seen in his life. Elisabeth loved it from the first second on.

“No,” Elisabeth replied. “I don’t want a name like that. I want a name you cannot shorten so that everyone has to call me by it. Though it does have a nice meaning.”

“Bruce then?” Thomas suggested.

Elisabeth was silent until they reached Alfred and Martha. Thomas sat his child down on the ground and watched Elisabeth reach for a cookie. Martha gave him a look and Alfred raised his eyebrow, the perfect picture of British sass. Thomas mouthed a ‘later’ to them.

“I have decided,” Elisabeth announced. “That my name is Robert Bruce Wayne for now. But I will go by Bruce because I do not want people to call me by a nickname. Robert will be my first name though, except nobody will know it, because everybody will expect me to use my first name and not my middle name. This way, I am safe against fairies, should any want to kidnap me.”

Martha grinned, wide and happy and so, so bright. “Well, then, my dear Bruce. Should we check if there are any fairies in vicinity that could have overheard your secret first name?”

“Yes!” Bruce jumped up and Martha followed him, both rushing over the grass.

For now, everything was alright.

Later, Thomas would worry about his son’s fate.

**Author's Note:**

> Bruce Wayne was a Weird Child and that's the hill I'll die on.  
> Also Pennywaynes because reasons.  
> Thanks for reading! I'd love to hear what you think!


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